


Falling

by frith_in_thorns



Category: Once Upon A Time (In Space) (Album), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Cinder's Song, F/F, First Meeting, Once Upon A Time (In Space), Pre-ship, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-04
Updated: 2014-01-04
Packaged: 2018-01-07 11:15:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1119191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frith_in_thorns/pseuds/frith_in_thorns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The war is lost, and the Princess's surrender the only formality left. (Or, the first meeting of Cinders and Rose.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling

**Author's Note:**

> _My world was left a-burning and my royal house a-bleeding_   
>  _I looked to the stars for you, my love_   
>  _My stepmother and sisters betrayed our world, conceding_   
>  _I looked to the stars for you, my love_
> 
>  
> 
> \- Cinder's Song

The towers here are tall and slender, reaching up and up in the light gravity. But even the top of the tallest isn't high enough to escape the smell of smoke. Ash and cinders and sparks twist in the updraught through the evening sky. The fires have never burned this fiercely here before.

The towers are built from the planet's bones and their shielding has kept them whole even though your world has being smoldering for longer than your life. But today the cinders you're named for tumble towards you unimpeded, landing on your outstretched hands like the snowflakes you reached for when you were a child.

(Only, the snowflakes never made it through the force-fields either.)

You catch hot searing sparks on your palms, not intending to live long enough to bear the scars. The traitors have won and your father's war is lost and the gravity may be light but the long fall will still be more than, more than enough.

"Stop!"

The woman wears the dark green uniform of the Old King's forces. Her hair is cropped short, and glows the red of burning cities. The mechanical weapon she holds is old fashioned, but she is after all here to take surrender from the Princess. A formality, traditional.

You step backwards from her. Cold granite presses against your skirts.

"Don't. Please."

Death upon defeat is also traditional, and you have one last card to play. There is ash in your hair. "Cole won't take me."

"He already has," the soldier says. You know her name, of course; everyone across worlds and star systems knows it. "Your mother conceded."

"She isn't my mother."

"No." Rose stares at you, her eyes bright and intense. When you jump, she won't be able to move fast enough to catch you. "And, on my advice, she isn't going to be allowed to rule for long."

"I'll die before I surrender," you say, and glance towards the drop. It looks deeper now, darker. There would be stars in the sky if the smoke weren't masking them.

Rose holsters her gun, not taking her eyes from yours. "If you come with me you'll be _my_ prisoner, and I won't let you be taken anywhere near Cole, or New Constantinople. I swear."

She opens up possibilities. The allure of life grows stronger with the sound of her voice, and you can't but be afraid. In another moment you'll weaken. You turn swiftly, long hair swirling as you leap up to onto the parapet, and you reach out into the gathering dark…

…and you are not allowed to fall. The barrier is invisible, but impenetrable.

Rose's arms are tight around you, her breath warm through your hair. She holds you up as the fight in you fades, as the falling ash is turned aside by the shields she re-raised only moments ago. "I accept your parole," she says, speaking quietly. "You're a non-combatant, a political prisoner. No one will harm you."

She left you no way to escape. She has won wars, after all, and you have never even left your homeworld. You look down on its remains from this dizzying height, and know whom it was who doomed it. Not the woman beside you, who is offering something different.

"Where is my stepmother? Her daughters?"

"Some levels below us, in the command centre. My orders are to leave her in nominal control of what's left of the surface. Of course, forces will remain in orbit."

You pull free, and turn to face Rose. You both still balance on the parapet. In the dusk the fires are reflected from the low clouds, and the smoke, and her hair. "My father built in a fail-safe," you say, as you've never breathed to another soul. Only the two of you ever knew. "This tower is linked to my life-signs. If I die, or move beyond signal range, it will trigger explosives wired through every level."

Rose's eyes widen as she stares at you, her lips parting. She's the finest, the most brilliant in all of Cole's armies, and in her face there's understanding, and respect. "Cinders," she says, and your name burns on her tongue. "Will you leave with me?"

"I will," you say, and take her offered hand.


End file.
